Monday, June 11 2018 14:05

ArmInfo. Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has participated in the CSTO Foreign ministerial Council sitting in Almaty, Kazakhstan on June 11.  The meeting was chaired by Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat  Abdrakhmanov, CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov also took part  in the sitting, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry  informs.  Opening the session Abdrakhmanov congratulated Mnatsakanyan  on his appointment as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. 

During his speech Mnatsakanyan presented Armenia's priorities in the  Organization, the country's assessments and approaches related to  regional and international challenges and conflicts, touched upon the  mechanisms on strengthening cooperation within the organization as  well as development of CSTO capacities in peacekeeping. Armenia's  Foreign Minister informed his counterparts that as a result of  Azerbaijan's actions a serviceman of Artsakh Defense Army was killed  yesterday. In this context Mnatsakanyan told about Baku's actions  along the whole line of Armenian-Azerbaijani state border and  Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact, noting that these steps are  unacceptable and irresponsible, aimed at escalating the situation,  putting on doubt Azerbaijan's obligations in ensuring progress in  peaceful negotiations. 

Meanwhile, as the CSTO website reports, the meeting of the Foreign  Ministers Council was held in narrow and expanded formats. The  foreign ministers discussed the current problems of international and  regional security, the current situation in the area of  responsibility of the Organization, exchanged views on the  implementation of Collective Directives to the Permanent  Representatives of the Member States of the Organization and other  important issues of international life. The Council also discussed  the formation of conditions for the use of the CSTO peacekeeping  potential in the interests of UN peacekeeping. During the plenary  session, the Statement "On the Situation around the Treaty on the  Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF)"  was signed, and the Plan of Consultations of CSTO Member States on  Foreign Policy, Security and Defense for the Second Half of 2018 -  the First Half of 2019 was approved.  The Council adopted a decision  on the list of topics for  joint statements in 2018.

Summing up the meeting, CSTO Secretary General Yury Khachaturov noted  that the current situation in the world and the relative tasks of the  Organization had been discussed. "A number of decisions have been  adopted aimed at consolidating the efforts of the CSTO member states  in the foreign policy fimplementing preventive diplomatic measures to  neutralize negative trends in international relations and threats to  stability and security." In this regard, the exchange of views on the  implementation of the provisions and expediency of updating  collective instructions to the permanent representatives of the CSTO  member states is extremely important, "Khachaturov said.He emphasized that in recent years CSTO cooperation with the UN  Secretariat in the peacekeeping field has significantly intensified.  In the capitals of the CSTO member states, the draft Joint (CSTO and  UN) Road Map "Formation of conditions for the use of the CSTO  peacekeeping potential in the interests of the global peacekeeping  activities of the United Nations (for the period 2018 - 2020)" was  agreed upon. " "The meeting of the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council  discussed the issues of further work with the UN specialized  structures on the formation of legal and organizational and technical  conditions for using the CSTO peacekeeping potential in the global  anti-crisis activities of the UN," the CSTO Secretary General said.